Methods

- A mid year comparison study of career satisfaction and emotional states between residents and faculty at one academic medical center

Six hundred and twenty-five residents, representing 58 ACGME accredited residency programs, and 705 faculty, representing all clinical faculty at OHSU who utilized the electronic data management system were surveyed between January and February 2005 using a previously validated instrument to evaluate levels of satisfaction with career choice, emotional states, factors that were particularly satisfying or dissatisfying about the professional experience, hours worked and slept [13]. There were 282 faculty, mostly community based physicians, who were excluded from the survey. While they participate in resident teaching, they are not part of the core-faculty. All responses were anonymous and confidential. The survey, divided into six sections, asked residents and faculty to:

• Rate levels of satisfaction with career choice by choosing one of five alternative statements ranging from "I regret the decision and may drop out" (one on a five point scale) to "I am consistently pleased with my decision" (five point).

• Indicate agreement with statements (33 for residents and 32 for faculty) describing positive or negative aspects of the professional experience.

• Rate a list of 19 adjectives, each describing a positive or a negative emotion or belief on a five point Likert scale.

• Rate "real" stress level compared to what was previously expected.

• Provide narrative comments about positive and negative aspects of the professional experience.

• Report duty hours and sleep, averaged over the previous 4 weeks.

The original survey instrument, designed for residents, was modified slightly to assure that the questions were pertinent to the faculty cohort. The data were first explored by using descriptive statistics for both resident and faculty cohorts. For further analyses, participants were divided into residents and faculty groups. Two sample t-tests and χ2 tests were employed to evaluate differences in the emotional states between the two groups.